How to free up disk space on a Mac: 12 safe steps

First, see what is using the space

Open System Settings › General › Storage. The bar at the top splits your disk into categories such as Applications, Documents, Photos, Messages and System Data, and the list below gives each one's size. Click the ⓘ button next to a category to see what is in it and delete from there. Start with the largest category: that's where a few minutes free the most.

For a quick number, select your disk in Finder and choose File › Get Info. Available includes purgeable space, which macOS frees by itself when it needs it, so it can be more than Storage settings shows as free.

1. Empty the Trash

Files in the Trash still take up space. Control-click the Trash in the Dock and choose Empty Trash. To have it done for you, open Finder › Settings › Advanced and turn on Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.

2. Clear out Downloads

Downloads collects installers, disk images and archives you opened once. Open it, choose View › as List, and sort by Size. Installers (.dmg, .pkg) and .zip files of apps you've already installed can almost always go.

3. Find and delete large files

1. In Finder, press ⌘ F and choose This Mac.
2. Click the first criterion (Kind), choose Other…, tick File Size and click OK.
3. Set it to is greater than 1 GB and sort the results by size.

Old videos, disk images, virtual machines and project archives usually top the list. Move what you no longer need to the Trash, or to an external drive if you want to keep it.

4. Uninstall apps you don't use

In Storage, click ⓘ next to Applications and sort by size. Games, video editors and design suites often take tens of gigabytes. Remove the ones you don't use, along with what they leave behind in your Library folder: how to uninstall apps on Mac completely.

5. Delete old iPhone and iPad backups

Each local backup of an iPhone or iPad can be as big as the device's contents. Connect the device or select it in Finder's sidebar, click Manage Backups, and delete the backups of devices you no longer have. If you back up to iCloud, you may not need local backups at all.

6. Let iCloud keep files you rarely open

With iCloud Drive's Optimize Mac Storage turned on, macOS keeps files you haven't opened in a while only in iCloud when space runs low, and downloads them again when you open them. Photos has its own Optimize Mac Storage option in Photos › Settings › iCloud, which keeps smaller versions on your Mac. Both need enough iCloud storage, and an internet connection to open what's been moved.

7. Move big libraries to an external drive

Photo and video libraries, music projects and virtual machines can live on an external SSD. Move them from inside the app, or with the app closed, so it knows where to find them; then delete the copy on your Mac only after the app opens the moved one.

8. Remove duplicate files and photos

Photos finds exact duplicates itself: open the Duplicates album under Utilities in the sidebar and click Merge. For duplicate files elsewhere, compare by size and name in a Finder search, or use a duplicate finder that compares contents, not just names.

9. Clean up Messages and Mail attachments

In Storage, click ⓘ next to Messages to see large attachments and delete them. To stop them piling up again, open Messages › Settings › General and set Keep messages to 1 year or 30 days. Mail keeps downloaded attachments too; deleting old mail with large attachments from the server frees space on every device.

10. Clear caches and logs

Apps keep caches in ~/Library/Caches, and some grow to several gigabytes. Quit an app, then move its folder inside Caches to the Trash; it rebuilds what it needs. The System Data guide walks through it, along with Time Machine's local snapshots.

11. Clear developer and creative leftovers

• Xcode: ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData can be deleted at any time, and xcrun simctl delete unavailable removes simulators for old iOS versions.
• Docker: remove unused images and volumes with docker system prune, or from Docker Desktop.
• Old projects: node_modules folders and Python virtual environments of projects you're not working on can be recreated when you need them.
• GarageBand and Logic Pro: remove sound libraries you don't use from the Music Creation category in Storage, or from the app's Sound Library menu.

12. Restart

A restart clears temporary files and the swap files macOS uses as extra memory, and lets it finish deleting snapshots and update files. After a big cleanup, restart and check Storage settings again; it can take a few minutes to catch up.

How much free space should a Mac have?

Apple doesn't give a number, but a good rule is to keep at least 10 to 15 percent of the disk free, and never less than about 20 GB. macOS needs room for virtual memory and caches, and a major macOS update needs much more while it installs. Below that, apps can slow down and updates can fail.

What not to delete

• Anything in /System, /private or /Library/Apple. macOS manages these, and it may not start without them.
• Your Photos, Music or Mail library as a whole, unless you've moved or backed it up. Delete inside the app instead.
• Files you found with a "clean everything" Terminal command from the internet. Clear things one app or one folder at a time.

Free up space with Tidy My Mac

Each step above is a few minutes by hand. Tidy My Mac does them in one app, shows everything before it goes, and moves most of it to the Trash so you can put it back:

• Smart Scan totals what can go across junk, large files and duplicates in one pass.
• Disk Map shows where the space goes as a treemap, so the biggest folders stand out.
• Large Files and Junk Cleaner cover steps 2, 3, 5, 10 and 11, with the risky items left unticked.
• Duplicates and Photos find identical files and similar shots, and always keep one copy.
• Uninstaller removes apps with all their leftovers.